Tuesday, February 23, 2010

monday nights at our house are girl night and guy night. don't mess with girl night and guy night. we started this tradition some time ago when i was inspired by my sweet friend's post about sisters night at her house. the guys do crazy stuff like swim after dark at the beach, or rent dollar movies and pick up ice-cream sandwiches to enjoy in a parking lot, in our big conversion van. they eat stuff like taco bell (blech!) and pizza.

we take turns with little blue - he's not quite big enough to enjoy all the crazy guy night stuff, and it interferes with bed-time. on this particular night sister snuggled and read to him while i prepared our "foodie feast."

we've done everything from meet girlfriends at panera to paint a canvas with sand and acrylics at the beach (which now hangs on my girly's wall.) recently we added a "girl night journal" to our ritual which holds scripture and quotes about mothers and daughters and will hold our memoirs of our time together.

toasting with sparkling cider - "to us - and to girl night!"

it's so important to me that when she is "over" me (and i know with my own sinful nature there will be plenty of times she is), my girl can go to the memories of our time together and read my thoughts of love toward to her. i want her to write in it, too, so her memories are active and personal!

on this girl-night, we cooked together and feasted on steamed artichokes with butter and balsamic vinegar, brown-butter sauteed butternut squash ravioli, and an antipasti platter with pickled garlic, roasted tomatoes, italian meats and cheeses, grapes, bruschetta crackers, and (her favorite and mine) herbed goat cheese!

we had a pan waiting for the boys of the evil delicious saltine crackers made with a toffee-chocolate topping - yum. very, VERY bad. you can find the recipe here. and very fun - we were a giggling mess as we dug into the artichoke.

we finished with some journaling and set up my girl's new photography blog.

(I'm not sure how to leave a comment. I'm going to use my Google account but that doesn't link up to my main blog. Maybe add the Name/URL feature for those of that aren't blogspot or one of the OpenID choices?)

"How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about (arithmetic), and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute."- G.K. Chesterton